So...this may forever mark me as a nerd, but...the Richter Scale doesn't really work that way. You can't use it to measure large aisles, since it is defined by the wave amplitude in a quake, ie it would actually have been almost zero in this case because the neutroneum would not in fact have moved all that far. He actually should have said moment magnitude scale, which measures the energy. :p

Interesting that this cosmic explosion hit the earth less than one day after the massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean that caused the devastating tsunami. Phil mentioned in TFA that the explosion "caused the earth's magnetic field to ring like a bell". That effect was reported in the days after the earthquake, but the media attributed that to the effect of the earthquake, not the cosmic wave. I'd like to know specifically how far apart in time the two events were.

Yeah, I know they're most likely not related, but it's one heck of a coincidence.

The correct answer is...:Interesting that this cosmic explosion hit the earth less than one day after the massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean that caused the devastating tsunami.

The key word there is "after". The energy from that blast was travelling at ~99% the speed of light, so with the earthquake occurring before then there is literally no way at all they could possibly be related or connected in any way - and it'll be another 33,300 years or so before any of the material ejected from that blast reaches us. It was a coinky-dink that the blast wave arrived the day after the earthquake - that's all.

The correct answer is...:Interesting that this cosmic explosion hit the earth less than one day after the massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean that caused the devastating tsunami. Phil mentioned in TFA that the explosion "caused the earth's magnetic field to ring like a bell". That effect was reported in the days after the earthquake, but the media attributed that to the effect of the earthquake, not the cosmic wave. I'd like to know specifically how far apart in time the two events were.

Yeah, I know they're most likely not related, but it's one heck of a coincidence.

strangelook hard enough and you will always find a correlation with somethingbut some correlations are causal, the fact that we dont have any understanding today, doesnt mean it didnt happen

toss in the fact that we currently have a zero success record at predicting earthquakes implies that we have little to no clue what all of the contributing factors are.massively fluctuating magnetic field is going to massively move the magnet in the eartha magnet that big doesnt have to move far to release enormous amounts of energy

Makh:The bad news, if there was intelligent life on that side of the galaxy. We know when it died.

Would a magnetar be able to wipe out life on a planet, though? Everything I have read says it mainly would effect satellites, even if it were a lot closer. And wouldn't it have to be pointed in the right direction even if so (like a GRB)?

machoprogrammer:Makh: The bad news, if there was intelligent life on that side of the galaxy. We know when it died.

Would a magnetar be able to wipe out life on a planet, though? Everything I have read says it mainly would effect satellites, even if it were a lot closer. And wouldn't it have to be pointed in the right direction even if so (like a GRB)?

Actually, just read wiki. It says they do product GRBs, but that they would need to be pretty close to wipe us out (Wiki says 10 light years, which seems low).

I love being a scientist, being able to confidently state that a magnetar 50,000 LY away had an "earthquake" that "probably shifted [the crust] by only a centimeter".It matters not that we regularly misinterpret how planetary geology works within the planets of our own solar system. After all, nobody will be able to disprove this interpretation in the next dozen generations.